Search is on for Man Overboard in the Pacific

MarineLink.com

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for a male crewmember reported overboard from a container ship approximately 805 miles northeast of Oahu, Monday.

Watchstanders at the Coast Guard Joint Rescue Coordination Center were notified at approximately 8:23 a.m., regarding a 23-year-old male Japanese national who was reported overboard from the container ship Hercules Highway.

The crewmember was last seen at approximately 7 p.m., Sunday.

An HC-130 Hercules airplane crew from Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point launched to the scene and the ship has changed course and is searching for the missing crewmember.

As part of the AMVER program, the motor vessel's St. Andrews, Anne Gret and the UACC Masafi are assisting in the search.

The Coast Guard regularly coordinates with DoD, commercial vessels that are part of the AMVER program and international partners to conduct searches in the Pacific where extreme distances often limit the resources immediately available to respond. The 14th Coast Guard District area of responsibility encompasses more than 12.2 million square miles of the Central and South Pacific.

AMVER, sponsored by the Coast Guard, is a unique, computer-based, and voluntary global ship reporting system used worldwide by search and rescue authorities to arrange for assistance to persons in distress at sea. With AMVER, rescue coordinators can identify participating ships in the area of distress and divert the best-suited ship or ships to respond.

Weather conditions on scene are winds of approximately 28 mph, seas of 12 feet and a water temperature of approximately 69 degrees.